Scintillation in (C₆H₅CH₂NH₃)₂SnBr₄: green-emitting lead-free perovskite halide materials

We report the optical and scintillation properties of (C6H5CH2NH3)2SnBr4 with excellent absorption length at 20 keV of 0.016 cm, measured bandgap of 2.51 eV, and photoluminescence lifetime of 1.05 μs. The light yield obtained with the 241Am source is 3600 ± 600 photons per MeV, which is much smaller than the maximum attainable light yield obtained from the bandgap. Temperature dependent radioluminescence measurements confirm the presence of thermal quenching at room temperature with the activation energy and the ratio between the attempt and the radiative transition rates of 61 meV and 129, respectively. Although thermal quenching affects light yield at room temperature, this green light-emitting perovskite opens an avenue for new lead-free scintillating materials.Ministry of Education (MOE)Published versionThis work is part of the project that has received funding from Universitas Prasetiya Mulya, Indonesia Toray Science Foundation, "Penelitian, Pengabdian Masyarakat, dan Inovasi (PPMI) Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) 2021, and Ministry of Education, Singapore (award no. MOE2018-T2-1-088). RL and TL measurements were performed at the National Laboratory for Quantum Technologies (NLTK), Nicolaus Copernicus University and supported by the European Regional Development Fund